Thursday, July 4, 2013

Melville Intermediate - Matariki Summary by Owen and Josh


Matariki is a constellation of seven stars that represent the Maori New Year which takes place in late May or early June. It occurs just prior to sunrise. In tradition Matariki was a season to celebrate and prepare for the New Year coming. 

A lot of the produce of the preparation was given to the god of food Rongo. 

The constellation was important for navigating and timing the seasons. Matariki has an English name: Pleiades star cluster.

The constellation Matariki has seven sisters their names are: Electra, Maia, Taygete, Alcyone, Celaeno, Asterope and Merope.

Matariki is featured often you just don’t notice it for instance does anyone know the Subaru logo, well it has seven stars and those stars are the one (seven) and only Matariki stars. There are many paintings of them in museums (and even more not so great attempts).

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